What's Their Game?

The last page of Grifter #4 reminded me of certain questions I've had for awhile. One of the Daemonites interrogating Ms. Reese states that it hates this world, and this body it's in, and will do anything to get away from both.

I've wondered pretty much since the series started what was the Daemonites' purpose on Earth. They don't seem to be making a concerted effort to conquer the planet. There isn't yet any pattern apparent to the people whose appearances they assume. If Cole's near miss was anything to go by, they mostly work by opportunity, seizing easy targets. Which minimizes the risk, but doesn't allow for a strategic approach. Maybe they couldn't manage that, if what the one Daemonite said about Earthlings all looking alike was true. They wouldn't be able to distinguish people in useful positions to replace. At any rate, Dire Wraiths they aren't.

I thought there might be a chance they were searching for something. An object, maybe a person. They showed up five years earlier, right around the time all the superheroes and other strange things appeared in the DCU. Maybe something they wanted fell to Earth. That's how Earthworm Jim got his supersuit, it was lost in transit, and he ended up having to fend off all the alien weirdos who came looking for it. Admittedly, different universe, but the point is, that's something that happens in fictional universes where aliens show up. So far, there hasn't been any indication they're looking for something.

Mostly, they seem concerned with staying hidden. Which would explain why they're so freaked about Cole. He can hear their discussions, which means he can help locate them, which means their covers aren't secure. But if they hate being here, and hate pretending to be human, why not leave? The simplest answer is they can't. Their ship or transmatter portal is busted, and they're stuck here until they fix it, someone comes to pick them up, or they stumble across a man-made method of getting where they want to be. In that case, why impersonate people? There have to be places on the earth they could go and retain their regular appearances and just wait, or work on their ship.

The other possibility is they're hiding from something else. Something that scares them so badly, they hide in the bodies of creatures they despise because it offers them some protection. In that case, it might be better to randomly take people to hide within, because they can spread out over a larger area. That might prevent whatever they're afraid of from wiping them all out in one go. Assuming it doesn't have the firepower to level the entire world, or if it does, that it's unwilling to do so without evidence Earthlings are in cahoots with the Daemonites. Being scattered, if one of them was attacked, it could alert the others and their distance would give them a bit of time to prepare.